Death was less painful than I thought it was. There was a bit of pain as I stopped breathing, but then I felt... Nothing. I was in an endless and really quiet black void. I was honestly disappointed with it, I was kind of expecting heaven with angels or maybe a Hell with demons. Though I never really did anything wrong in my past life.
The area was timeless in a way because there was no way to tell how long it has been. Though it still felt like I was in there a long time. The worst thing about the dark space was that it was really, really boring.
A voice broke through the quiet eventually, a feminine and artificial voice.
[Soul found]
[Establishing connection…]
[Connection established]
[Collecting soul…]
I felt a pull, it was small, but noticeable as I hadn't felt anything in forever. I let it pull me as anything would've been better than the black void. It was just that boring. It pulled me slowly at first, but it picked up the pace as we went. At one point it felt as if I was sky diving like I use too, but without a parachute. As that's how it felt when I slammed into the ground or white space in this case.
[Soul Collected]
[Erasing memories]
[ERROR 076]
[Memories cannot be erased]
The voice wanted to erase my memories for one or another reason. Thankfully it failed.
[Enacting protocol 021: Informing staff...]
[ERROR 077]
[Protocol failed to initialize]
[Enabling senses]
[Senses enabled]
[More Mana required for further functions]
Then the world gained color. I was in a Grey room, it was small and not furnished. At a minimum, it was better than the void.
I was kind of confused at that moment, to be honest. No idea where I was, a small amount of info on where I was. Yeah, it was confusing. The voice that came after solved a few of my questions and added a thousand more.
The voice sounded like an old man's.
"Start log 01: This is Chris Malary, Elder at Gold Creek labs. We are starting batch 006 of the Puppet Project. The soul has been successfully transferred to the vessel and there have no warnings so far. Beginning the secondary scan..."
From what I gathered I was an experiment of the Puppet Project, I was in some type of lab, something tampered with my soul and that this was not normal. I tried to ask the Elder what was happening, but couldn't. It felt like less of a couldn't speak any more of a doesn't have the ability to speak feeling. A feeling I got used to over my time in the void.
I moved my hand to my mouth and was shocked. The first reason was that I could move, for me that was crazy. I could move, after two years where I could do nothing but lie down and waste away.
I immediately jump up. I could move!
After the initial excitement faded away I started to think about the second shocking fact.
I was made metal. My body from head to toe was made of metal and at least from my perspective looked like a suit of medieval armor. A black mist floated out of the joints and a red glow followed wherever I looked. (Eyes glow red) In the left part of my chest, I also felt... something. Whatever it was it felt important.
Now all this was confusing but I kind of just accepted it. I could move again and that was all I cared about. That and staying alive that is. I didn't want to go back to the void. So whatever they threw at me I would be ready for it.
I began moving around for a bit, testing myself. Mainly I just wanted to move.
I still had most of my senses. I could see, hear, smell, touch things. My sense of touch was less sensitive than before like there was a layer of cloth between me and whatever I touched. I also didn't have any sense of taste. I still don't have it. I really miss pizza man... Anyway, so I had all my senses except touch. I was also avoiding the sad truth about a part of my body. I just didn't want to face reality, so I didn't.
Chris: "There seem to be no problems with Experiment 001. We can begin immediately testing. Dylan call Fred so that he can guide the Mana for the next test."
A young voice replied to the commands.
Dylan: "He is already in position sir and we're ready to start the test."
Chris: "And he didn't even say hi? Damn that brute... open valve K3 and set Mana purity set to 8. Release 40 ml of it."
Dylan: "Valve K3 is opened, Mana purity is set to 8 and 40ml of it is being released."
Chris: "Tell that brute Fred to get ready. Begin test A1: Mana reactivity."
(After each test is completed I will add an explanation of it at the bottom of the chapter.)
The A series is mainly there to test the experimental subject. To see if there are any problems with it.